Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Mariana Vieira, Rory Reid and Leaf Arbuthnot.
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
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Chinese unemployment
Young Chinese graduates are struggling to find work in an economy that has not yet recovered from long Covid lockdowns – and the global downturn. Now, one province has come up with a solution: send 300,000 former students to work in the countryside for two to three years. In China and beyond, this has stirred up uncomfortable memories of the Cultural Revolution, in which “bourgeois” urban students were forcibly sent to work the land. How different will this new programme be?
Olive oil crisis
A farming trade group called Coldiretti revealed this week that a bacteria, Xylella fastidiosa, has killed 21 million olive trees since it arrived in southern Italy a decade ago. The disease is now threatening to reach Bari, which has the highest concentration of olive groves – and the farmers say this is the last chance to stop it. If not, the consequences could extend well beyond more expensive olive oil on supermarket shelves.
Private jets
Figures released this week showed that the number of private jets has doubled in the past decade – and last year flights surpassed their previous pre-credit-crunch peak. That has led for calls to reform the tax system, in which private flights pay only a small fraction of their commercial equivalents, despite generating about ten times more emissions per passenger. What’s behind the rise, and what should we do about it?
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September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
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Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
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A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
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The Week Unwrapped: Why is horse-racing going on strike?Podcast Plus, will the South Korean women who worked in state-run brothels set up for US soldiers succeed? And what’s behind a surge in leg-lengthening surgery?
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The Week Unwrapped: What does Bake Off say about Channel 4?Podcast Plus, why are Scottish drug deaths so stubbornly high? And are women in their 30s too anxious about their eggs?
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The Week Unwrapped: Could robotic dogs help clear landmines?Podcast Plus, what can we learn from a new approach to urban renewal? And how much power rests with political spouses?
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The Week Unwrapped: Is it time for a new world map?Podcast Plus, why is the pope getting flatmates? And why are seagull 'muggings' on the rise?
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The Week Unwrapped: Has Donald Trump secured his Nobel Peace Prize?Podcast Plus, what does the use of North Korean and Indian labour tell us about the Russian war economy? And why have we all gone crazy for pickles?
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The Week Unwrapped: Why are we watching the ocean floor?Podcast Plus, what can we learn from a football club on the brink? And which jobs will fall to AI first?
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The Week Unwrapped: Could AI replace catwalk models?Podcast Plus, should countries sue each other for climate damage? And what does Grand Theft Auto 6 tell us about the video game industry?
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The Week Unwrapped: Are electric bikes 'invading' London?Podcast Plus, why is Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposing anti-corruption laws? And how will US withdrawal affect Unesco?
